I, Zombie
by StephenMcTowelie
Summary: A short story chronicling the life and times of a random walker from the perspective of said walker. Rated T for violence. Story Complete.


I opened my eyes for the first time staring up at the sky. I raised myself up in a body that was not my own. Its muscles were weak, its limbs unwieldy, so I was slow to move. I used the old beige sedan next to me to prop myself up as I became acclimated to my new surroundings. My own body was a peculiar sight to behold, four appendages connected to an elongated core from which my observation perch was mounted. My body looked pale and tight and was clad in tattered cloth coverings, torn and sullied in many places. My central core looked as if it had been gnawed upon. There was a spot where one of this body's ribs was showing. Outside of my body I looked around; I was on a wide road with trees on each side of me. A sign in the shape of a blue and red shield read "85 North" as if that were to mean anything. I had no memory, no knowledge of anything outside myself. The fact I was even able to read that sign was knowledge that was borrowed from somewhere else. The same goes for the fact that I could move this body into which I was born. These appendages were unnatural, how could I have even held these graying, peeling, festering digits in front of my face without this otherworldly knowledge. Motor skills, language, general knowledge, it was all there as if I had access to a vast invisible library of sorts. I could call it a psychic connection; it's not that I believe in all that paranormal mumbo jumbo I just lack the ability to describe it in purely scientific terms. There were gaps in this library, such as would occur in computer system with physical damage to certain sectors but not enough to where the whole system would fail. While this inborn knowledge I had access to was vast I had no knowledge of how this body got here and why I dwelt within it. Again there were no memories before this day. This whole sense of being was so new to me, so inexplicable it didn't seem real. What did seem real however, was the hunger. It was constant pain in my abdomen, and aching and yearning desire throughout this entire body. The drive to satiate it was so strong that it overwhelmed my train of thought. These deep reflections upon my birth were quickly sidelined by the urgent need to feed. Such was the price to claim this body; my daily rent was to spend my life seeking a way to quench this hunger.

The hunger called and I obeyed. I directed my awkward, slothful body through the cars all parked in rows like a frozen frame in time. There goes that borrowed knowledge again; I knew these vehicles were meant to move and where I was they should have all been moving fast, but they weren't. The world existed locked in a single moment in time. Nonetheless the hunger drove me forward. I saw others like myself but did not care to speak to them. Surely they were lusting after the same thing I was, food, particularly fresh flesh, meat, blood, the diet of a carnivore. So I wandered, I wandered for so long that the sun moved from one end of the sky towards the other and vanished completely. In the cool of the night it felt as if I had more energy, more flexibility in my joints. The degradation of my body was slowed as the temperature dropped. The hunger however was not diminished; it impelled me on until morning. I did not stop; I did not rest, for the hunger never did.

On the morning air I detected a new smell; it was similar to me but not. The scent was the most appetizing, tantalizing scent I had ever smelled. It was like whatever it was; it was the ideal food source. It was as if it was specifically designed for my consumption. The scent enraged the hunger and made it swell into such a force that it overwhelmed all conscious directives. I was drawn to it uncontrollably like an addict who hadn't had a fix in weeks. When I came to the source of the scent others had beat me there. It was a body similar to my own but plump, with vibrant colors in its skin not the chalky greys and whites that covered my flesh. Its blood was red, not darkened purple, brown or black. It was fresh and looked oh so delicious. It's long yellow hair and angular facial features indicated this was a female of its kind. I tried to lean in to have a taste but the others kept me from it. I fought and I fought to get in to no avail. Just then a loud burst rang out and one of the others near be was struck by an invisible object that burst through its cranial cavity and dropped it lifeless onto the ground. Several of the others got up and followed after the sound while I stooped lower and finally got my first taste. I snatched up a chunk of whatever culinary delight filled this creature and brought it to my mouth. It was a feeling of ecstasy as it went down my throat but that was it, the hunger did not diminish one bit. I shoveled more and more of it in my mouth unaware of the repeated loud bangs going on just a short distance ahead. It was never enough; it wasn't even enough to reduce the hunger. My hunger was stronger than ever and only compelled me to seek out more.

I heard screams in the direction of the loud noises and got up after gorging myself to no avail. Several of the others were now lifeless on the ground while two of them had another meal prepared. This one was male, larger, with more meat on its bones. I lumbered towards them but stopped when I smelled fresher meat. An arrow struck one of those feasting ahead of me and a shagging looking man emerged from the woods wielding a crossbow. Another bolt struck the second one and the man sprinted over to where the others had fallen and retrieved his arrows from their heads. Driven by hunger and not by rational self-interest I crept towards my new meal. I saw him reload his weapon and knew deep down what that meant. I mourned my imminent death though I could not stop coming, the hunger was just too strong, the compulsion overrode everything. It was like an autonomic response, like breathing, it was hard to stop it for long. I tried to speak to the fleshy man with the bow but my words came out as gasps and unrecognizable snarls. My vocal equipment was degraded far below that of my failing intellect. I could not reason with him, convince him to lower his weapon and allow me to feed, or to flee and leave me to the other one that was already slaughtered and ready for consumption. Trapped by biological imperatives and physical limitations I had but one choice, to overpower the man. So I stopped resisting and advanced on him as fast as this crude body would take me. He fired an arrow that impacted into my chest below the right shoulder. I felt nothing; what I expected to be excruciating pain was nonexistent. Perhaps I was immune, unlike the others who fell so easily to his attacks, or perhaps I wasn't. Either way it wasn't that bad, it was nothing. The hunger however was a real source of agony, it was far from nothing. I kept going, staring down the man as he pointed his weapon towards me. I watched the next shot as it was released from his weapon, staring down the projectile head on in slow motion as it made its journey from the man to my right eye. Then it hit, again I felt nothing upon impact. In a matter of seconds my vision went black as the arrow pierced through my eye tilting slightly upwards into my visual cortex. As my motor functions failed I was given the sensation of falling as my body dropped to the ground followed by the silencing of all sound. In a flash this bright new world I had found myself had shut itself from me, sealing me into an endless void. So this is what it felt like, to die.


End file.
